Floor clip



March 11, 194 s. H. CAMPBELL ET AL FLOOR CLIP Original Filed Jan. 31,1938 FIGS INVENTORS S H CAMPBELL F. PIETZSCH AT 'NEY Patented Mar. 11,1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FLOOR CLIP Sterling H. Campbell andFrank H. Pietzsch, St.

Louis, Mo., assignors to Western Railway Equipment Company, St. Louis,Mo., a corporation of Missouri 2 Claims.

This application is a division of application Serial No. 187,778, filedby us January 31, 1938, for Floor clip and method of manufacturing thesame.

to secure the floor boards of railway cars to the sills.

A floor clip of the type above referred to is provided with one or moreprongs adapted to enter the fioor board to prevent the rotation of theclip around the bolt securing it to the board and its consequentdisengagement from the sill. The cross section of these prongs should besmall enough not to offer undue resistance to the entry of the prong orprongs into the board under the pressure applied to the under face ofthe clip by tightening the nut on the bolt. One of the difficultiesheretofore encountered in making fioor clips has been that of blanking along relatively thin prong out of the heavy metal bar forming the bodyof the clip at a single operation. This is due to the fact that one ofthe blades of the blanking die must necessarily be of the same contouras the prong and so is liable to crumble under the excessive strain towhich it is subjected. This difficulty has recently been accentuated bythe practice by car builders of inserting a strip of felt paper betweenthe floor boards and the sills, thus necessitating the use of longerprongs than were heretofore required.

30 Another difiiculty encountered in case the clips are each providedwith two prongs, the outer sides of which are coincident with the sidesof the clip, results from the variation in the width of the stock abovereferred to which renders 30 proper centering of the bar difiicult, ifnot impossible, so that in the completed article the prongs are ofdifierent lengths.

In making a clip in accordance with our invention, we subject the stockto a preliminary sizing 40 operation so it may be accurately centered tosecure uniform sized prongs, such sizing operation also blanking theouter sides of the prongs. We complete the prongs by a second blankingoperation which also forms the opposite end of the 45 clip. Both theseoperations, as well as other necessary operations, are performed by acompound sizing, blanking, punching and bending die, so that after thepreliminary operations, necessary only at the end of the bar, eachstroke of such 50 compound die results in the formation of a completeclip.

In the accompanying drawing in which the die structure issemi-diagrammatically illustrated, Figure 1 is a plan view illustratingthe first pre- 65 liminary operation; Figure 2 is a plan view illus- Itrelates to floor clips of the type used trating. the. second preliminaryoperation; Figure 3 is a plan view illustrating a normal operation ofthe die; Figure 4 is a vertical section through the parts shown inFigure 3; Figure 5 is a vertical section showing the clip in position ina car structure; Figure 6 is a plan view of the clip; and Figure 7 is aperspective view of the clip.

Referring first to Figures 5, 6 and 7, the numeral 8' rep esents one ofthe floor boards of a railway car supported above a sill 9, betweenwhich parts is placed a sheet In of felt paper. Passing down through theboard adjacent the edge of the sillis a bolt II which projects through abolt hole I2 in the body I3 of the clip and is engaged by a nut I4 bymeans of which the body of the clip is clamped firmly against the lowerface of the floor board. The action of the nut also causes the prongs toenter the. floor board. The clip is provided with an offset l6terminating in a lip H which projects under the flange of the sill.

The movable parts of the die are carried on a reciprocating plunger I8(Figure 4). These dies include a pair of trimming or sizing dies I9, apunch 20, a blanking die 2|, a body bending die 22 and a pair of prongbending dies 23. Adjacent the dies 23 is an adjustable stop whichconsists of a bar 24 threaded in an upright 25. The bar is provided witha handle 26 and with p a lock nut 21 by means of which it may be secured30 in proper adjustment. The trimming dies l9, punch 20 and blanking die2| cooperate with a lower fixed die 28 and the bending die 22 with alower bending die 29. The upper bending die 22 may be in fixed relationto the plunger l8 and the lower bending die 29- in fixed relation to die28 in case all the clips to be formed have the same depth of offset I6.In order, however, that the same dies may be used to form clips havingdifferent depths of offset, we prefer to provide for adjustment in theheight of dies 22 and 29 relative to the other dies by the use of shims30 and 3| placed between die 22 and plunger [8 and between die 29 andlower die supporting member 32, respectively.

In making'our clip, the bar of stock A from which the clips are to beformed is inserted between the trimming dies 19 and die 28 so far thatthe end of the stock extends to about the middle point of the trimmingdies (as shown in Figure 1) and the plunger is actuated to perform thefirst preliminary operation which consists in. trimming or sizing thefront end of the bar of stock. It will be understood that the distancebetween the two trimming dies I9 is slightly less ming dies 19. Theplunger is'again actuated to perform the second preliminary operationwhich i consists inpunching the hole l2 in the stock by means of thepunch 20 and removing a portion A of the front end of the barby means ofthe. forming die 2h? This latter. pperati'on. corn;

pletes the shaping or contouring .of theprongs l5. As the outer sides ofthese prongs have been formed. by the previous action of the dies 19,die 28 may be extended laterally as far as necessary to provide therequired strength to. resist the strain. due to the shearing action. By.forming the prongs by two independent opera-1."

tions, we are enabled to produce prongs of great-v er length than thethickness of the stock from which they. are formed; The stops 33 arese.-.

cured to the laterally'extending portion of die 28 by any suitable meanssuch as pins 34. These stops not only centerthe stock but prevent thespreading of the prongs under the action of die 2|. The portions of thestops 33 which engage with the edgesof the stock are of a heightsubstantially equal to the thickness of the stock and above theseportions the stops-are provided with ways 35 .of suflicient width topermit the passage of the untrimmed portions of stock of maximum width.

After the preliminary operations above described, the stock isadvancedat each stroke of the plunger until its end contacts the stop 24as shown in FigureB. This results in the formation of a complete clipfor each stroke until the entire bar is used up. The severing of theclip fr'om'the bar by die 2| is not completed'until the offset I6 issufficiently 'formed. to prevent longitudinal movement of the cliprelative to the dies. The prong bending dies 23 have rounded corners 36to prevent injury to the prongs and the distance between the faces ofthese dies and theend of die 29 is somewhat less than the thickness ofthe stock'so that the action of these dies not only bends the prongs atright angles to the body I3 of the-clip but also exerts a squeezing orupsetting action upon them. This action not only appreciably increasesthe length of thhe prongs but improves their contour.

It will be seen that by our method we are enabled to form a completeclip at each stroke of the die, after the preliminary operationperformed only at the end of the stock. Further, we are enabled toproduce a clip in whicfi'the prongs are of greater length than thethickness of the stock from which the clip is formed and in which thegreatest cross-sectional dimenclaim' as new and desire to secure byLetters Patent of the United States is:

1. 'A vfloor clip comprisinga body portion of uniform thickness providedwith a bolt hole and l with a lip offset fromsaid body portion, saidbody portion being provided with a rotation preventing prongformedintegral with said body portion, said prongs merging at its basedirectly into the upper and lower surfaces of the clip, the length ofsaid prong above the upper face of the body portion'bein'g greater thanthe thickness of said portionfthe thickness of said prong in thedirection of the length .of the clip being less than the stock fromwhich it is formed.

2. A floor clip comprising a body portion of uniform thickness providedwith a bolt hole and with a lip offset from said body portion, said bodyportion being provided with a pair of rotation preventing prongs formedintegral with said body portion and having. their outer sides coincidentwith the adjacent sides of the clip, said prongs merging at their basesdirectly into the upper and lower surfaces of the clip, the length ofsaid prongs above the upper face of the body portion being greater thanthe thickness of said portion, the thicknessof each of said prongs inthe direction of the length of the clip being less than the stock fromwhich it is formed.

STERLING H. CANIPBELL. FRANK H. PIETZSCH.

